Forumite: Baker writing as L-J BakerPiece title: Promises, Promises: A Romp with Plenty of Dykes, a Unicorn, an Ogre, an Oracle, a Quest, a Princess, and True Love with a Happily Ever AfterDescription: See above. Oh wait, you mean that it's a novel.Publisher: Lethe Press Availability: March or April 2011Excerpt:

"They chatter all the time. And aren't meek or quiet or submissive or anything. Not like they should be. Not like the gods made them to be. Inferior to man. But do they know their place? There's nothing worse than a woman." The hermit passed a shaking hand over his face. "See. Just thinking about them has made me break into a cold sweat."

"Thanks for sharing that with us," Sandy said. "Now, is there any way we could get you to travel with us for a little while? To the palace. Not for long. And we'd bring you back straightaway."

"Have you known many women?" Bob said.

"That's all they want!" the hermit said. "To get to know you. That means sex. They're insatiable. Voracious. Sex, sex, sex. They can't look at a man without thinking licentious thoughts."

Forumite: deej writing as DeJayPiece title: StrangersDescription: Novel Publisher: Regal Crest Availability: Sept. 2012Blurb:Justina Murphy has lived on the streets since the age of thirteen. First she was outed by her best friend, later beaten till she passed out and finally thrown out of the house by her vindictive mother. She has spent the last thirty years building a life for herself. A place where she feels safe, has the amenities she was deprived of growing up and lastly a certain sense of peace.

Victoria Cartwright works for DCS, Department of Child Services. Her job is to convince Murphy to make changes to her very minimalist life, to open her home and her meager bank account to two strangers. Victoria needs to accomplish this while struggling with her own demons and imminent death.

Jesse has very specific instructions from her mother. She’s the eldest and responsible for her baby sister, Brianna. It’s her job to look out for them and to help her Aunt learn about love, trust and family. Jesse is also struggling with her sexual identity, even though it's 2003, this can pose a problem when attending Catholic High School .

The three women come together, the fights are explosive, the learning curve more like an insurmountable mountain, and the results provide answers to a suicide that has hung over Murphy’s head these last thirty years.

I remember that conversation so vividly. It was the moment when everything changed. Not that those hijacked planes-turned-missiles smashing into the towers in New York City, detonating the west wall of the Pentagon, and slamming into an open field in Pennsylvania on that horrific Tuesday morning didn’t completely alter the world as we knew it. In this moment, however, our lives would be redirected on a predetermined course that, naturally, no one could have foreseen. Maybe it’s better that way, I don’t know.

“We’ll need to go soon.” The voice of Alandra’s best friend, Trish, pulled me momentarily back to the present.

I nodded absently, the fog of memories still engulfing me. My mind pushed away the stark reality of where I was, opting to seek refuge in the past instead. It was the only place that felt sane.

Excerpt:From the shadow of the trees, Lin watched her house, not with an assessing eye, but with a wary one. A woman sat on her porch, and she’d been sitting or standing or pacing there for three hours now. Lin hadn’t seen her arrive; she’d been in the woods. From the trees, across a small meadow she’d carefully cultivated to look wild, beyond the vegetable patch where weeds needed pulling and tomatoes harvesting, Lin had a clear view to the porch and the stranger.

A veery called, high and flutelike. If the sound reached the stranger, she didn’t appear to care. But Lin paused in her wary watching to enjoy the birdsong. August woods tend more toward quiet than the cacophony of spring, with all the shouts and posturing of courtship. By August, most of the chores of raising a family are done, as they were for Lin, who was well beyond her own August.

Cicadas buzzed while a soft breeze rustled the oak leaves and whispered through the pines, cooling the sweat of sitting still. A small, stifled sound reminded Lin of why she was sitting on a log, her legs falling asleep. A sneeze. The woman, the stranger, had sneezed.

Forumite: dperrine writing as Doreen PerrinePiece title: Clara's StoryDescription: NovelPublisher: Bedazzled Ink http://bedazzledink.com/authors-illustr%20...%20n-perrine/Availability: August 2011Blurb:Claire’s passion for the New York art scene is overshadowed by her fascination with a quirky—and stunning—Italian artist, Isabelle. The only thing bolder than Isabelle’s paintings is her flirting and, try as she might, Claire can’t shake the charming girl from her mind—and heart. Like a new world explorer, Claire breaks away from a nagging, uptown mother and her nearly-estranged downtown father and journeys across an ocean and cultures in search of life and love.

Raise your hand if someone you know is alive today because you can't afford a hit man.

Denny brushed her fingers across Vanessa's flowing script, centered between the folds. This was the fourth such letter, if you could call it that, if three words were enough. Vanessa spoke in pictures, not words, so it must have been hard for her to do this much. Denny had crumpled the first three from residual anger, but this one she folded neatly and slipped into her jacket pocket. Their last argument throbbed in her memory, louder still than the quiet words on paper. Forgive and forget? All Denny had wanted was the summer in Alaska, flying tourists around Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak. It was the chance to fulfill a dream for a no longer young pilot whose flying days were closer to landing than takeoff. Somehow, Vanessa had come to see that as her own abandonment, a rejection of her very being, and an excuse for a terrible betrayal.

Denny leaned back in her chair and rocked, inhaling the scent of spruce filling the warm, mid-summer air and listening as the creek tumbled softly across stones beyond the driveway. Did she miss Vanessa? Oil and water may not mix, but they can coexist. Until a match strikes.

Forumite: Sacchi GreenPiece title: The Pirate from the SkyDescription: 7000 word short storyPublication: Like a Treasure Found: Erotic Pirate Stories (e-book from Circlet Press)Availability: Current, from http://www.circlet.com/ as well as Amazon and Smashwords.

Excerpt:In Seok-Teng’s dream a great pale dragon twined through a labyrinth of shifting clouds. Opaline scales shimmered through intervals of sunlight, slipped into invisibility, then flashed out again in dazzling beauty. Its long, elegant head swung from side to side, tongue flickering like sensuous lightning.

A distant hum arose, a subtle, tantalizing vibration that teased at Seok-Teng’s mind and flesh. A song? A warning? A summons? In all her dreams of dragons, never had she been aware of sound. She strained to hear, to understand. But the hum became steadily louder, swelling to a growl, tearing her from sleep into darkness and sudden, stark awareness. If the roof of the captain’s cabin had been high enough she would have bolted upright.

Still the sound grew. This was no dragon, nor yet thunder, nor storm winds. The sea spoke to Seok-Teng through the ship’s movements, as it had to her forebears for generations beyond counting; tonight it gave no cause for alarm. Japanese patrol boats? When she had taken her crew so far out of the usual shipping channels to avoid such pursuit? No, she had come to know that sound all too well. This one was different--yet not entirely unknown.

The cabin’s entrance showed scarcely lighter than its interior. Now it darkened. Han Duan, the ship’s Number One, squatted to look within.

Excerpt:Rhonda went to the window and peeked through the heavy curtains. The dirt road in front of the mobile home was empty and no dust was visible in either direction. Perhaps they were not on their way here, but going somewhere else for coffee and donuts. Perhaps, too, the cow really did jump over the moon when she thought no one was looking.

But just in case, she took back out the dress and re-ironed it. Wearing just the full slip, she would wait for them to come. And they would come. Rhonda had sinned, at least in their eyes. Bobby Joe had, too, but that didn't matter. It was Rhonda's fault.

Starting to sit down in the armchair again, she heard the hunting dogs up the road start barking. Someone was coming. She grabbed the dress and slipped it over her head. She was doing up the last front button when she heard the sound of car tires popping the gravel as it came around the last turn. She didn't bother looking, just sat down to put on the sandals.

Excerpt:I cursed and scrambled to my feet. Through my mother's shrieks rose Caroline's wails and the screams of the servants. I knew I'd not hear Julia's voice among the cries. The death-woman had stolen my cousin as she had my sister, my grandmother, and all the others.

Forumite: ElaineB writing as Elaine BurnesPiece title: Lily Gets a Flu ShotDescription: short storyPublication: Kissed by Venus, 3rd prize in their short fiction contestAvailability:Free online, available in February [June 2012: Seems the publication has gone under. Website is now something else and an email to editor Alexandra Wolfe bounced back.]

Excerpt:The line wound through the lobby of the college health center and down a long hallway before circling back and disappearing around a corner. Lily groaned in frustration. This will take forever, she thought. She checked her cell phone. It was just after eleven. Her next class wasn’t until one, so she’d probably be okay.

“Please take your coats off and read the materials you were given,” a short woman called out.

Lily glanced at the sheet of paper she’d been handed when she signed in. This year the shot covered H1N1 and seasonal flu. There was the usual blah, blah, blah. Who should get the vaccine and why. Risks. Life-threatening allergic reactions. Lily shoved the paper into her backpack. She had no allergies, so this would be a no brainer. She wished she’d brought something to read.

Kids in front of her joked with each other or texted. She thought about checking her phone, if only to look like she had a social life, but she knew the only messages would be from her mother. “Are you okay, honey?” “You’ll make friends, dear, don’t worry.” Her mom thought she understood the stress Lily was under, moving from rural Maine to a suburb of Boston. Small high school to big college, only child to roommate. She’d even given Lily a special “sex” talk. That was grueling. How to talk about “it” without ever mentioning what “it” was. Not that “it” mattered to Lily. Any sex she would be interested in didn’t involve boys and a risk of getting pregnant. But mom didn’t know that, so she’d gone along. “Yes, Mom, I’ll use condoms.” She’d practically had to fight her mother off of forcing her onto the pill.